Graduates' pay goes up, but so do standards

December 22, 1980

Next June's college graduates can expect to earn 5 to 6 percent more than graduates did in 1980, for a starting salary of more than $15,000 for someone with a bachelor's degree, according to a Michigan State University survey of employers.

The average salary for graduates ranges from a low of $12,970 for social science graduates to a high of $20,650 for chemical engineering graduates, according to John D. Shingleton, director of MSU placement services. Education majors will earn an average of $12,672 for a 10-month year.

Employers will visit 1 to 2 percent more campuses during the 1980-1981 school year than they did during the 1979-1980 school year, but the 1981 graduates will pay the price for the 1980 recession, according to the survey.

"While employers are visiting a few more campuses this year, their hiring quotas will be similar to last year's quotas and, therefore, they will be more selective this year," Mr. Shingleton says. There are also more graduates this year, he says -- 1,064,000 graduates with bachelors degrees compared with 1,052, 000 last year.

About 90 percent of all graduates will have jobs by graduation and a good share of the remaining 10 percent will have jobs within the next three or four months after graduation, Mr. Shingleton says.